Sports Reporter

IT WAS, of all places, in the mountains of Oman on Thursday that cycling witnessed its first major battle between some of the main contenders for victory in this year's Tour de France.

And in the fourth stage that finished six kilometres up the 18km-long Green Mountain, Australia's first and only Tour champion, Cadel Evans (BMC), reminded everyone with his third place behind Spanish stage winner, Joaquim Rodriguez, that he is very much back from illness and intent on being in the fray of the Tour that starts in Corsica on June 29. For Rupert Guinness it was an opportunity to assess the form of this year's Tour contenders who are at the Tour of Oman, which finishes on Saturday, or have been racing elsewhere around the world.

Winning form in last year's Vuelta a Espana has given Contador a terrific platform to start a season focused on his Tour de France return from a doping ban that ended last August. It began with fourth overall and first in stage 6 of the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. Beaten for third by Cadel Evans in Thursday's stage 4 finish on Green Mountain in the Tour of Oman, but his fourth indicates he is tracking well for the Tour start. His fight for time gain in stage 3 may have sapped strength for the steep pitches of Green Mountain but should pay dividends later.

Has made excellent return to racing in the Tour of Oman after an off-season aimed at recovering fully from a virus that cruelled his 2012 campaign, and then at training for this year. Showed signs of good form early at Oman and confirmed it with third place in the crucial stage 4 to move in to second place overall at 24 seconds to the British race leader Chris Froome, who was second on the stage. Still scope for improvement, as inability to follow Froome and stage winner, Joaquim Rodriguez showed. But its early days.

CHRIS FROOME

Nationality: British

Team: Sky (GB)

Date of birth: May 20, 1985 (27)

Grand tour highs: Tour - 2nd: 2012, Vuelta - 2nd: 2011, 4th: 2012

2012 Tour: 2nd at 3mins 21secs

Like Contador, has good Vuelta form from last year. His punch on stage 4 finish of Tour of Oman to distance Evans, Contador and Vincenzo Nibali (who has reportedly opted to miss the Tour in preference for the Giro) to take second place at 4secs to Rodriguez and move to first overall indicates he is up on form compared with his peers. Remember … Froome is battling for leadership of a Tour team that includes defending champion Bradley Wiggins. And he must earn it by showing he can win as Wiggins has done.

RYDER HESJEDAL

Nationality: Canadian

Team: Garmin-Sharp (US)

Date of birth: Dec. 9, 1980 (32)

Grand tour highs: Tour - 6th: 2010, 17th: 2011; Giro - 1st: 2012

2012 Tour: Did not finish (crash)

Apart from a 1km time trial exhibition in Dubai with Contador and Nibali, he will start his racing season later. Although the Giro d'Italia champion has plenty on his plate with a defence of his Giro title planned, followed by the Tour. Most grand tour contenders believe it is too hard to race both events so close to each other with winning intent. But Hesjedal believes it's possible to race both. He said he felt better after the Giro when he began the Tour last year - that is, until he crashed out. Don't ignore.

Rodriguez, another holding form from last year's Vuelta and his win in the Giro di Lombardia, wants a crack at the Tour so bad he was willing to quit his Katusha team that has not qualified for a start by failing to earn a World Tour licence and join another - pending the outcome of Friday's Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling on Katusha's fate. He showed with his stage 3 win on Green Mountain in the Tour of Oman that he is letting his legs do the talking.

PIERRE ROLLAND

Nationality: French

Team: Europcar (Fra)

Date of birth: Oct. 10, 1986, (26)

Grand tour highs: Tour - 8th: 2012, 10th: 2011

2012 Tour: 8th at 16mins 26secs

A gifted climber who rose to attention in the 2011 Tour when he won stage 19 to l’Alpe d’Huez, Rolland kicked off his 2013 season in France by racing in the Etoile de Besseges and Tour Mediterranean where he placed 83rd and then an improved 43rd overall respectively. He is steadily approaching good form, but his performance in the Tour de Langkawi starting next week should give a better idea of where he is at. He should revel in the mountains.

The mystery man of world cycling in a season that has begun as last year's ended - with him abandoning. To be fair, Schleck has come back from a fractured pelvis sustained in last June's Criterium du Dauphine prologue time trial. Schleck raced for the first time since his abandon in the Tour of Beijing last October in the Tour Down Under in Adelaide and again failed to finish, but due to a flat tyre in the last stage. Concerns for his Tour hopes mounted when he did not finish in stage 1 of the Tour of Mediterranean in France last week citing breathing problems.

Another who began the season early at the Tour de San Luis with fifth overall. Key results in his debut at the increasingly popular Argentine race were his 10th in the stage 4 time trial and stage 6 mountain leg. He returned to notch up some racing kilometres in the Majorca Challenge series in February. This year he has opted to miss the hilly Ardennes classics - Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege - in Belgium and Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands in April to focus on the Tour de Romandie as Tour preparation.

TEJAY VAN GARDEREN

Nationality: American

Team: BMC (Swtz)

Date of birth: Aug. 12, 1988

Grand tour highs: Tour - 5th: 2012

2012 Tour: 5th at 11mins 4secs

The heir apparent to Cadel Evans as leader of BMC, van Garderen has not wasted his off-season. In his first race, the Tour de San Luis, he finished second overall and BMC won the team's classification. Crucial to van Garderen's finish was his seventh in the 19.2km stage 4 time trial to move him up to second overall and sixth in the stage 6 mountain leg won by Contador. His program now is Paris-Nice, Criterium International, and the Tours of the Basque Country, California and Switzerland. Early form augurs well to help Evans in the Tour - and himself.

BRADLEY WIGGINS

Nationality: British

Team: Sky (GB)

Date of birth: April 28, 1980 (32)

Grand tour highs: Tour - 1st: 2012, 3rd: 2009; Vuelta - 3rd: 2011

2012 Tour: 1st in 87hrs 34mins 47secs

After an arduous team training camp and starting the season with the Majorca Challenge series in January, Wiggins returned to race in the Tour of Oman. Time lost after being caught behind a crash and finishing in last place on stage 1 saw him out of contention overall. Although, he came to Oman saying he would ride at the service of Chris Froome and has looked strong in the help he has given. Wiggins, like Hesjedal, plans to race (and win) the Giro and Tour this year, and while he will race before and between those events, planning and recovery will be vital.